Chapter 256: The Mandrake Potion Supply Chain
George and Fred's idea to invent the so-called "House-Armour" wasn't random. Magic came from daily life.
In the environment they grew up in, their brooms, pot scrubbers, knitting needles, and other objects all moved on their own, as if they were household pets.
There was also their grandfather's favorite wizard chess, where every piece seemed to be a real person, picking up weapons or even their chairs to attack the pieces they captured.
The Chocolate Frogs they ate would kick the wizard in the mouth and run away like real animals when they were about to be eaten.
With this foundation, coupled with Professor Lockhart's high standards and financial support, such an idea naturally came about.
But it was no easy task. The subjects they would need to get involved with, as well as the knowledge they would need to explore in depth, would require a lot of effort.
The arrival of the three Gryffindor Quidditch Sisters undoubtedly brought them great help. At the very least, finding information in the vast school library would be a lot easier.
Lockhart didn't get too involved in the projects of the Dueling Club members. He just checked their progress from time to time.
After he had helped George and Fred arrange a space for their experiments, Percy and the others came to find him.
Percy, Hermione, and Draco were excited to say that the training ground for the "Quidditch Dueling Tournament" had been secured. The next step was to formulate a detailed training plan and to plan for Percy's graduation half a year later when he would start operating the project and kick it off with a spectacular and fun tournament that would sell tickets.
This was an extremely ambitious project that required more students to get involved. For example, Harry Potter.
Harry might not be able to help much with the project's creation and operation, but he was the best performer in terms of practical combat among all the Dueling Club members. He would play several crucial roles simultaneously, such as coach, captain, and best chaser. He was irreplaceable.
It might seem like Harry was at a disadvantage. It seemed that once the project got big, the influence Percy, Hermione, and Draco would command would be no less than Minister Fudge's, while Harry would only be a Scrimgeour.
But don't forget, this world is a magical world after all. Harry's future might not just be that of a Scrimgeour; he could also be a Dumbledore. Who knows what the future holds?
Finally, there was Ron's "Hagrid breeding." With the apple orchard and cat shelter provided by Sir Humphrey and the help of Fudge and Newt's son, young Scamander, to gather more Madagascats, the project could now begin.
Of course, Ron also needed help from others. He couldn't do it all by himself.
And so...
Lockhart suddenly realized that his seemingly endless supply of Galleons was starting to run low!
Yes, he had thought he had a lot. He hadn't expected that after investing in three projects, his vault would be like it had been equipped with an electric conveyor belt, with Galleons pouring out. Many seemingly insignificant things required a lot of money to support.
The "Quidditch Dueling Tournament" required brooms, broom maintenance potions and equipment, flying protection gear, and so on. The renovation of the ancient castle's pipes and toilets couldn't be easily solved with just magic.
Transfiguration could certainly solve it, but a permanent Transfiguration spell was not something that an average person could perform. If the Transfiguration spell failed halfway, it would be a terrible disaster for the entire castle.
Everything required money.
And then Grindelwald, who had been waiting for this day, came knocking.
"Gilderoy, do you need my investment?"
Old Gellert was smiling like an old fox waiting for a feast.
Lockhart, however, didn't look troubled at all. In fact, he looked very excited. "No. This is a challenge from life, and I choose to meet it!"
"???"
Grindelwald sometimes really felt it was hard to understand this young man's thought process.
This was a challenge?
...
"Yes, this is a challenge!"
Lockhart looked at the Dueling Club members with a serious expression, honestly describing the difficulty. He never carried his worries alone and was willing to throw the problem out there for everyone to discuss and solve together.
He still had Galleons, but there would come a day when they would be gone. And that day might come before all three projects started to make a profit.
So, they needed to plan ahead.
"We need to keep an account!" Hermione stood up with a serious expression, looking around, and finally looked at Professor Lockhart, seriously stating her opinion. "We need to reduce unnecessary expenses and not always choose the best things."
"For example, brooms that wear out. I think we shouldn't be using Firebolts for training. I've checked, and the price of one Firebolt is enough to buy a bunch of Sweeping Series brooms."
Lockhart smiled slightly. This suggestion was very much like Hermione. She always tended to act within the rules and then explore the possibility of "improvement" or "modification." In "increasing revenue and cutting expenditures," she had thought of cutting expenditures first.
Meeting Hermione's gaze, Lockhart nodded. "That's a very good suggestion. Keeping an account will help us better run the three projects in the future, and some unnecessary expenses should be saved."
"But I don't quite agree with changing the training brooms. I hope you don't think of it as 'training.' I think you all understand the principle: every experience is accumulating magical power. I hope everyone becomes especially familiar with the powerful drive that the Firebolt provides, and in that state, finds the spell-casting feeling that suits them best."
Hermione nodded thoughtfully.
Some people thought about cutting expenditures, while others thought about increasing revenue. Several young wizards were excited to say that the thick stack of information they had obtained from questioning the black wizard who had transformed into a pet, Pettigrew, contained a lot of secrets from the past, many unknown stories, and of course, some interesting magical secrets.
For example, Pettigrew's extensive experience with his Animagus transformation, and how he balanced the "humanity" and "animal nature" it brought. Or the magical knowledge he had used to cast the enhanced version of the Exploding Charm that had blown up an entire street.
The compilation of the interrogation data had never stopped. Many people, mainly students from Ravenclaw, were involved in organizing the information, hoping to publish a book just like Professor Lockhart had.
"That's really great!" Lockhart was pleasantly surprised. He had been busy with various things and, although he knew that the students had captured and interrogated Peter Pettigrew, he hadn't had the time to ask about the details.
"However, as students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I must remind you that if you jointly publish a book, the content must be reviewed by the Head of your House or the Headmaster."
"Of course, I will also help you review it first. I believe I also have many ways of handling information that I can teach you."
After all, Pettigrew was a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and the matter involved the Dark Lord Voldemort. The information interrogated from this guy needed to be carefully verified, and some of the content also needed to have its dissemination restricted.
Lockhart had written a biography of Voldemort, and many people who were determined to defeat the Dark Lord would carefully study every detail mentioned in the book. He did not want to be negligent and let the book his students co-authored become a research manual for those with malicious intent to use against the Order of the Phoenix.
In fact, publishing a book was not the only way to make money. The young wizards had too many creative ideas.
For example, the magical herbs, magical creatures, and potions that young wizards were most familiar with. Even if these things weren't enough to make a lot of money, they could be used in the "Quidditch Dueling" and "Hagrid breeding" projects. They could be self-sufficient and not have to spend any Galleons.
As they discussed, they quickly focused on a very commonly used herb in the wizarding world that no one had yet cultivated on a large scale: Dittany.
Dittany is a magical plant that is widely used in various healing potions. Even when used alone, it can have an excellent effect.
For example, for a werewolf bite that won't stop bleeding, you can apply Dittany mixed with silver powder to instantly heal the wound. The most powerful effect of this potion is that it can reattach a severed hand or foot without any side effects.
Yes, reattach. It's that magical.
And to make it easy to carry and prevent the Dittany from wilting or spoiling after harvesting, people can use simple potions to distill it into an essence. Just a few drops, or even one drop, is enough to be effective.
Such a useful herb potion hadn't been cultivated on a large scale for two reasons: Dittany is easy to grow and can be found in many places in the wild, and also because simple harvesting was enough for the current needs of the wizarding world.
But what if this scope of use was expanded? Expanded to application scenarios far beyond the imagination of wizards.
Keep in mind that even in 1994, the Muggle population was already a staggering 5.6 billion and was increasing year by year.
The new era... War is coming... Muggles...
The content Lockhart taught in the Dueling Club was not just magical knowledge. When people had a broader perspective, many opportunities they had previously ignored suddenly appeared before them.
The only thing that needed attention was the rules of the current era. It was just like the philosophy he taught the children: find solutions based on the characteristics of the problem.
Finding a breakthrough in this new era was something that perhaps every young wizard would have their own answer to.
Returning to the topic of Dittany, or rather, the essence that they planned to create from it: Dittany Essence. Everyone had too many ideas.
George and Fred suggested making "Dittany Leech Candies." Leeches are flying insects that look very similar to leeches, but with two pairs of thin wings like a dragonfly. Their characteristics are also very similar to leeches—they like to suck blood and are especially good at finding bleeding areas. Using this characteristic, they could make a healing potion that would find a wound on its own.
Hermione suggested using Muggle spray bottles for storage. Compared to the glass bottles and pipettes wizards commonly used, a spray bottle was more suitable for carrying and for emergency use.
Harry's suggestion or idea was that since George and Fred had mentioned candy, could Dittany be made into a potion that could be drunk directly, or even a candy that could be swallowed? He believed that many combat situations required a healing solution that didn't need many steps.
Every young wizard had their own perspective. But no matter what, they had to produce the Dittany first.
This was simple for the young wizards. They could go to the Forbidden Forest or other forests around the school to collect seeds, and then find a special place to cultivate them on a large scale, taking good care of them and finding a way to accelerate their growth.
And so, in a wonderful way, the fourth project of the Dueling Club came into existence.
The full supply chain of Dittany pharmaceutical.
Lockhart went to Headmaster Dumbledore again to get support for the most important part of this project, the Dittany cultivation ground. The grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were vast, and there was always a suitable place. The most important thing was that the members were all students and couldn't leave the school.
"Cultivating Dittany..." Dumbledore was very interested in this topic. He looked through the meeting minutes Lockhart had brought, and when he saw the various creative ideas of the young wizards, his face was filled with a benevolent smile.
He liked these children who dared to challenge life and create the future.
"Gilderoy, I must say, you have brought so many changes to Hogwarts." Dumbledore looked at Lockhart with satisfaction. He gently closed the minutes, took out a piece of parchment, and began to write a permit. This was a good thing. He naturally supported it.
But right next to him was a guy who looked at everyone with suspicion.
"Training an army, making weapons, developing medicine, becoming a third party outside of the main warring factions..." Grindelwald muttered these words, looking at Lockhart with a look of extreme mockery. "If we have a little understanding of history, we'll find that the Magical Congress of the United States developed in exactly this way."
Lockhart was stunned. He hadn't thought of this before.
"Many people don't realize why every other Ministry of Magic is called a Ministry, but they are a Magical Congress." Grindelwald sneered. "I had noticed that piece of pure land that was untouched by war, but what's interesting is that when I was causing trouble there and was eventually caught, some hidden forces began to interfere. In the end, I was ordered to be sent to Europe, and they did everything they could to get me away from that place."
Lockhart knew about this. Grindelwald had escaped during the journey to Europe, and that magical battle had been pretty cool.
Just then, Dumbledore put down his quill, and his gaze turned sharp as he looked at Grindelwald. "So that's why you secretly drew everyone's attention to North America?"
Oh, snap!
Lockhart's eyes lit up. He knew it—Grindelwald was behind it all. He had thought that Voldemort's methods were too different from this kind of pulling Muggles into the fight.
Grindelwald neither denied nor admitted it. He simply said, "The biggest difference between the jurisdiction of the Magical Congress of the United States and the Ministries of Magic in Europe is that the Statute of Secrecy is the most severely broken there."
He narrowed his eyes. "I suspect there is some deep connection, or even a single entity, behind the Magical Congress and the so-called 'Scourers' organization!"
"Albus, for decades, the Magical Congress of the United States has been openly seeking help for the issue of the Scourers, but the help from the various Ministries of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards has been negligible at best. This has given them an opportunity to secretly develop their influence."
"The opportunity for wizards and Muggles to unite."
"These damned guys!" Grindelwald looked exceptionally annoyed. "They stole the fruits of my struggle from back then. They took all the benefits!"
He was the one who had started that revolution. The elite wizards of Europe were the main participants in the struggle. So many people had died, and he had been in prison for decades, only to come out and find that some people had quietly been enjoying the fruits of victory in an unnoticed corner...
Could he stand it?
Dumbledore was silent for a while, his hands clasped on the table in thought. In the end, he shook his head. "Now that everyone's attention has been drawn to North America, we can use this opportunity to observe carefully."
Observe what?
He didn't say. But Grindelwald and Lockhart both knew.
It was, of course, to observe the development of the relationship between wizards and Muggles after the barrier of the Statute of Secrecy had been broken.
If it went badly, they could naturally punish them in the name of the Statute of Secrecy and tear everything down. But if it developed well, and there were many scenarios he liked, perhaps that place could be secretly allowed to push its influence, letting this undercurrent spread to Europe, Africa, and more places.
In Dumbledore's eyes, the most interesting social experiment was taking place there. He had enough patience to observe carefully.
Especially now that Voldemort had been branded as a villain to be hunted down by everyone, forcing him to run to that place to seek support, some problems would become even more apparent.
Lockhart looked at the two old men with a strange expression, a tsk in his heart.
Grindelwald and Dumbledore were working together. Old Voldy was truly being played. They didn't need to find Voldemort and duel him. They just needed to create a situation that would make Voldemort go to the place they wanted him to go and do the things they wanted him to do.
Terrifying! Political players are truly devious.
Fortunately, Lockhart's plans always went with the flow and were always within Dumbledore's scope of tolerance, and he even seemed to be happy to let them develop.
For example, the future market for Dittany, with its enormous demand from billions of people. Even though Dittany can be found everywhere in the wild, even if they pulled out all of it, it wouldn't be enough to satisfy such a huge untapped market.
Healing herbs, healing potions—this was a plan based on love. Even if it went straight to breaking the Statute of Secrecy, it would be in a direction that Dumbledore would tolerate. And it would even get his help.
Lockhart quickly left the Headmaster's office and, with the note, went to find the gamekeeper, Hagrid, to have him take the students to find a suitable place to cultivate Dittany on a large scale.
This would only be the beginning.
The students would eventually graduate, and Lockhart had no intention of staying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his entire life. He still had to find a broader land to explore.
(End of this chapter)